Manage user-saved queries with custom app

A common request weâ€™ve heard from customers using IBMÂ® MaximoÂ® Asset Management is to manage user-saved queries more easily. To address this issue, BPD Zenith Ltd. has created the Maximo Query Manager application. The creation of this custom application has been taught at the Canadian Maximo User Group, MaxTECH Calgary and MaxTECH St. Louis.

Background: Why we created the Maximo Query Manager app

In many implementations of Maximo Asset Management, the number of queries that are created in applications can quickly become unwieldy. Users create and save their own queries, and those queries may contain inefficient or even inaccurate conditions causing spurious query results.

There was no easy way to see all of the queries that a user created across all applications, and it was even more difficult to see where queries have been used on start centers. In those occasions, a set of SQL scripts were created for the purpose of managing queries. Likely, every company had a similar set of SQL scripts for managing queries.

As a support person, youâ€™ve likely been asked to look at a specific query a person has created and suggest changes. In the past, it took several steps to update and change that personâ€™s query:

Use a backend SQL tool to update the query object directly

Change ownership so that changes could be made by another person

Return ownership to the original owner once the changes have been made.

But now queries have gotten easier to manage using the Maximo Query Manager app.

What is the Maximo Query Manager app?

In order to manage queries, the SQL would need to be created and then sent to a database analyst to run against the production database. It was this lack of â€śhands-on controlâ€ť that led to the development of the Maximo Query Manager app. The Maximo Query Manager app is a custom application that uses application designer, automation scripting and database relationships to:

Display all queries for all applications in one spot

Display the status and name of the user that is the owner of the query

Show all of the start centers where a query has been used to provide data to a result set

Allow users with the appropriate level of security the ability to modify another personâ€™s query; for example: change the description, clause and public flag

Prohibit a user from deleting another personâ€™s query or changing the owner of the query

An experienced Maximo administrator/developer can develop and implement the Maximo Query Manager app in a very short period of time and begin to benefit immediately from the efficiencies it provides.

Stephen Hume is an IBM Certified Senior Maximo Consultant at BPD Zenith Ltd. A Maximo technical and functional expert, Stephen has many years of EAM knowledge and expertise in industries including oil and gas, mining, Olympic games, utilities and more. Stephen formed the MaxTECH User Group in 2017 and serves as the group chairman/facilitator. To learn more about the group and to become a member please visit IBM Middleware User Community MaxTECH â€“ Maximo Technical User Group.